We will to the first chapter
of Ephesians. Our daughter Becky was able to
be with us for a couple of our meetings. She came down to attend
a baby shower for our mine and Judy's coming third great grandchild. But she had to catch a plane
to fly back to her home in Vancouver, Washington. But I had a conversation
with her while she was here after the services Friday night. And
she was telling me about a conversation she overheard from a rank free
will Armenian who made this statement. He said, can you imagine someone
being so arrogantly proud that they would go around saying that
they're God's chosen people. Brethren, the Gospel of God's
sovereign, electing, redeeming, sanctifying grace is the most
humbling doctrine in the world. Those who are enlightened by
God the Holy Spirit know that we have nothing to glory in except
Christ our Savior. We are the circumcision which
worship God in His Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no
confidence in the flesh. Our Lord Jesus told His disciples,
you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And we read in 2
Thessalonians 2, verses 13 and 14, that God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our Gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those
who mock any part of the truths of God's Gospel are mocking God
Himself. That's serious. I read in the
Scriptures where Elijah was walking through the land and about 40
children started mocking him because it was told that Elijah
didn't die, he just caught up to be with the Lord in the air.
And they started mocking Elisha, who was the prophet that filled
Elijah's shoes, saying, go up, bald head, go up. And God sent
two female bears out to tore and rip those children to pieces.
That's serious business, mocking God. He will not share His glory. with another. God's choice of
a particular people is wonderful to those who know,
like Brother Michael Loveless sung in the hymn that he sung
during this conference, he included me. I'm thankful. I'm thankful
that God in His infinite wisdom wrote my name in the Lamb's Book
of Life before the foundation of the world. Election is not
salvation. Jesus Christ is our Savior. But
election marked out those who will be saved. And our God is
too wise to make a mistake. And is too powerful to allow
anything to hinder what He has purposed. All of God's sheep
were chosen to salvation from the beginning, through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, called of God under the
preaching of His Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ. I've titled this morning's message,
Accepted in the Beloved. And I want to show you where
I got the title but also point out a very important truth. The
surrounding verses of that very statement, accepted in the Beloved,
does not make mention of any man contributing one single thing
to the salvation of God's elect. To the contrary, God attributes
our being made accepted in the Beloved to none other than Himself
His sovereign will, the precious redeeming blood of Jesus Christ,
His amazing grace, and His enlightening power. Are you with me in Ephesians
chapter 1? Starting at verse 3 we read,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places
in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him. Oh, what a wonderful truth to
have made known to a hell-deserving sinner that one day we will stand
before Him faultless. Right now we're that way in God's
sight, matter of fact. But we know that we're still
sinful. But one day, We will be with
Him, not just in our standing, but our state, just as perfect
as God Himself, because of Christ our Redeemer. Read on. In love,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, to the praise of the
glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved." In whom? In Christ. In whom we have redemption
through His blood. the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in
all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery
of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath
purposed in Himself." Now that's enough. We don't need to read
any further. And this is not my text as far as what I want
to share with you this morning. I just wanted to show you the
title of this message is right here. accepted in the Beloved
and give you the reasons why God has His Word for us to study. and learn from, and it has nothing
to do with anything man has done, but gives God all the glory and
all the praise. Listen, folks. Salvation is of
the Lord. Amen? Salvation is of the Lord
from start to finish. And every aspect of salvation
was purposed by God and executed by God for the glory of His darling
Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Now, if you will,
turn to Romans 8. in Romans 8. And let me give
you four very important truths concerning the Christ of God
that I trust will glorify our great, majestic, triune God and
encourage the hearts of His chosen blood-bought children to continue
to place our complete trust in the exalted, glorified God-man
who purchased us with His own precious blood. hooks to hang your thoughts on.
God purposed that His Christ, number one, God purposed that
His Christ would be the Savior of His chosen people. Number
two, God purposed that the life His Christ lived would be His
people's righteousness. Thirdly, God purposed that the
life His Christ gave would take care of the sin debt of His chosen
people. And fourthly, God purposed that
He would be glorified through the life of His resurrected Christ. Those four points. Let me ask
you a question. How can sensible, educated men
and women possibly think that God does anything haphazardly? without a plan, without a master
blueprint. We look at these tall, massive
skyscrapers and we know that those who built those tall buildings
had to have some kind of a plan, a master blueprint. Now man has
to change his mind at times. Get in the middle of a project
and we overlook something, they have to add something or take
something away. But not with God. God has a master plan. And this
sinful doctrine that when He came to this earth, men would
allow Him to be their king He wouldn't allow men to set him
up as a king on this earth. He had to go to plan B. That
is foolish. We crossed big rivers on bridges
that men built. They had to have a plan. God
doesn't work without a plan. His plan was determined before
the foundation of the world. And He's carrying out His plan
using whatever it pleases Him to use, whomsoever it pleases
Him to use, for the good of His people and for the glory of Jesus
Christ. Here in Romans chapter 8, starting
at verse 8, we read and we know. There's some things we don't
know, but there's some things we do know. And here's one thing
that God's enlightened children know. We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose. the called according to His purpose,
for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate, to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified,
and whom He justified, them He also glorified, who Or what shall
we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all. How shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Now
folks, I could stop on any one of those verses and spend a lot
of time, but they don't need to be explained. You understand
what words mean, and it's there. God called us according to His
eternal purpose. And His eternal purpose was that
we, as His blood-bought children, would give Him the glory for
this unspeakable gift, eternal life, through Jesus Christ our
Lord and our Savior. So everything God does is on
purpose, His purpose. Purposed by Him before the foundation
of the world. He planned the salvation of His
elect before time began. And nothing and nobody can hinder
Him, not even one iota from doing what He has purposed. He's God. He's Almighty. And His Word clearly
points out that He intends for His children to know that He
is the One who works all things after the counsel of His own
will, so that we would give Him all the praise and all the glory. It was God's predetermined purpose
that a particular people that He gave to Christ in the eternal
covenant of grace would be made accepted in the Beloved. Would be made accepted in the
Beloved. Secondly, God purposed that the
life His Christ lived would be His people's righteousness. Sinful men and sinful women have
no righteousness that God can accept. God's a perfect God and
He will not accept anything that is not perfect. He won't. We're right here in Romans chapter
8. Look with me at verses 6 and
7. Romans 8 verses 6 and 7 says,
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against
God, For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. Did you catch that? Man in his natural state cannot
do anything that's pleasing in God's sight. Without faith, it's
impossible to please God. Now, brethren, it's not just
what we do that's sinful. We are sin. From top to bottom,
inside and out, everything about us is corrupt. That happened
when Adam fell. He plunged the whole human race
into condemnation. During our studies on Friday
night, we're going through the book of Malachi. We've been studying
about how those priests, not just during Malachi's days, but
before and after as well, how they were offering sacrifices
that were corrupt, God wasn't pleased with those sacrifices.
They were offering the lame, the halt, those animals that
were polluted and saving the best for themselves. Man in his
unregenerate state thinks that he can offer something to God
that's pleasing to God when everything about him is corrupt. Even their
so-called free will The will is never free. It's
corrupt. Our nature is corrupt. And the
nature dictates to the will. The will's in subjection to the
nature. And so man will not come to Christ
that he might have life. He hates Christ. It's enmity
against Christ. We just read that. So man thinks
he can offer the polluted free will to God and God will accept
that? That's an abomination to our
God. No, man has no righteousness
of his own. Our righteousness is as filthy
rags. And people might not want to
hear that, but they need to hear it. My children needed to hear
that. My siblings needed to hear that.
By God's grace and His Spirit, we as God's enlightened children,
we tell our loved ones You better turn to Christ and
believe on Him and get rid of any thought that you might think
that would gain favor with God by what you do. Get rid of it
as quick as you possibly can. God is pleased with His Son,
Jesus Christ, and only with His Son, Jesus Christ. And the life
that our Lord Jesus lived while He walked on this earth is our
righteousness. Let me show you something in
Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. God chose
Israel as a nation to typify His blood-bought
church. God has a people that He chose
in Christ they're his spiritual Israel. But national Israel typified
his church. And they thought, those unbelieving
Jews thought, they were gaining favor with God by keeping his
law, that they were going to heaven because of their bloodline
and their works was going to gain them favor with God. Hall
says, In the first four verses of Romans chapter 10, brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. There's a lot of people who think
that the whole nation of Israel is going to heaven because they're
Israelites. That's not true. A Jew is not
one outwardly, a Jew is one inwardly. God circumcises the heart. And
that's spiritual Israel, those who are born again, those who
experience the miracle of the new birth. And if Paul thought
that all of Israel was going to be saved, he would not have
worded it this way. And the Holy Spirit's the one
who moved him to word this, that his heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. He said, for
I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth." Do you believe that? Brethren, He fulfilled
the law for us. When Jesus Christ walked on this
earth, And this is not just when He started walking. This is from
His mother's womb when she first conceived. All the way from conception
to it is finished when He hung there on the cross. He was doing
His Father's will. And He walked with His Father.
In our studies in the book of Malachi, we're looking at this
where He walked with God in peace and equity. In other words, even
though he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, he walked
with God the Father in perfect peace, in equity, in righteousness,
delighting himself in doing the will of the One who sent him,
not murmuring, not complaining, walking with his Father knowing
that this was what His Father purposed for Him to do. And He,
our Lord Jesus, had an eye for the glory of the One who sent
Him, and a desire that all of His chosen people would be as
righteous as He is in the sight of God. He was establishing that
righteousness for us. Every thought He had, every word
He spoke, every deed He performed, And His motive for doing all
of that is ours. That's mine. I was in Christ. You were in Christ. If your faith
is in Him, you were in Him when He walked on this earth. He's
our righteousness. And God has been pleased to reveal
that to us, that we were made accepted in the Beloved through
what He accomplished for us as He walked on this earth in subjection
to His Father's will, doing that for His people. He didn't need
to do that for Himself. He's the Lamb of God, spotless,
without sin. And He walked, pleasing in the
sight of God, so that we would be made accepted
in Him and be as holy in God's sight as He is. Brethren, I'm
telling you the truth. We have no righteousness, but
why would we even think about seeking a righteousness of our
own when we have His righteousness that makes us perfect and holy
in God's sight? Just as holy as God's darling
Son. That's wonderful. That's good
news. to someone who knows we deserve
nothing but God's eternal wrath. Let me take you to Acts chapter
13. If you'll turn back one book
to the 13th chapter of Acts. Let me give you my third point.
God purposed that the life of His Christ, the life He gave
would take care of the sin debt of His people. The soul that sinneth, it must
surely die. God must punish sin. So our Lord establishing a perfect
righteousness for us was not enough. We have to have that,
but it's not enough. God must punish sin. He must. He must take care of
that which offended His holy justice. But God laid the iniquities
of His people on His darling Son. I'm not making that up. Our Lord Jesus saw of the travail
of His soul and was satisfied. By His knowledge He justified
many. And He was obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. And so our iniquities were laid
on God's darling Son. He bore in His body our sins. When God punished His darling
Son, He punished His people in His darling Son. When Jesus Christ
hung there on that cross, being made sin for us, God unsheathed
the sword of His divine justice and plunged it into the heart
of His darling Son. And God's holy justice was satisfied
through the death of Jesus Christ who suffered and bled and died
for all of those that He represented. He didn't die for the whole human
race, but He died for those that that were given to Him in the
eternal covenant of grace by God the Father before this world
began. Folks, He reconciled us to God
by His death. He obtained eternal redemption
for His people. I'm not making that up. That's
what the Word of God says. He by Himself purged our sins. Hallelujah! God remembers our sins against
us no more. They're gone, gone, gone. That
took place at Calvary 2,000 years ago. I'm so happy, so blessed
that God looks upon me just as holy as His darling Son. made
accepted in the Beloved through the perfect redeeming work of
Christ our Savior when He suffered and bled and died for our sins.
Here in Acts chapter 13, starting at verse 38, we read these words,
Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through
this man, through Jesus Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness
of sins. Do you know why God forgives
His people? For Christ's sake. And this preaching of the Gospel,
preaching Jesus Christ, is vital. This is the instrument that God
uses to deliver His people from darkness. The preaching of the
glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. And through this man, through
the God-man, Jesus Christ our Savior is preached unto you the
forgiveness of sin. Now look at this. Verse 39. And
by Him, by Him, by Jesus Christ, all that believe are justified
from how many things? All things. It is God who has
justified us. He gave His darling Son And if
he is given his darling son, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. And
by Him all that believe are justified from all things from which He
could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, beware,
beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken
of in the prophets. Behold, ye despisers, and wander,
and perish, For I work a work in your days, a work which ye
shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you." And
I'm just a man, a sinner saved by the grace of God, but I'm
declaring it unto you through Jesus Christ that's preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. And if you don't bow down to
Him and embrace Him as your only hope, as the One who took care
of your sin debt by Himself. If you're holding on to anything
that you have done, you'll go through that doormark
death right into eternal torment. There's only one way that you
can be forgiven of your sins, and that's through Christ Jesus
who purchased us with His own precious blood. Turn to Philippians 2, and I'll
bring this to a close. God purposed that he would be
glorified through the life of His resurrected Christ. Brethren,
listen, Jesus Christ is the power of God. All power in heaven and
earth has been given to Him. When I was a teenager in school,
someone asked me this question. Do you know what a 400 pound
canary eats for breakfast? I said, no I don't. Anything
he wants to. You know what my God is doing
in heaven? What pleases Him? Jesus Christ is on His glorified
throne with all power in heaven and earth given to Him And He
has the power to give eternal life to as many as God the Father
gave Him. No more, no less. Not one for
whom Christ died will be lost. He, Jesus Christ, is the blessed
surety of His chosen blood-bought children. And if He lost one, Satan would laugh that hideous
laugh for all eternity, but he's not going to lose any of them.
He made sure that when he came to this earth to do his Father's
will, there was no question in the mind of God the Father that
his son would accomplish what he sent him to do. God cannot
fail, folks. He cannot. He wouldn't be God
if he could fail. It's good to see you, Bill. And
so we have a risen, exalted Savior who has all power in heaven and
earth doing just exactly what pleases Him. And it pleased our
Lord Jesus to reveal Himself in us. To God be the glory. Great things
He hath done. Brother Michael read the Scripture
in front of this morning's program. And it points to the fact that
God Himself said, unto Me every knee shall bow and every tongue
shall swear. He said, look unto Me and be
saved all the ends of the earth for I am God. There's none else. Spurgeon said that's a life look.
That must be a look of faith. God must give us faith to see
His glory in the face of Jesus Christ who loved us and gave
Himself for us. When Jesus Christ said, it is
finished, nobody had taken His life from Him. He gave it up.
Wicked and cruel hands did crucify the Lord of glory, yes. but it
was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God Almighty.
This is exactly what God had purposed. And He has exalted, God the Father
has exalted His darling Son to be the object of all worship
and praise as the sovereign monarch over this whole universe and
everything in it. Every knee will bow to Jesus
Christ, and every tongue will confess that He is Lord to the
glory of God the Father. Here in Philippians chapter 2,
starting at verse 5, we read, Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation,
and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled
Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross." Now look at the next word. Wherefore? Because of that. Because He came
to do His Father's will and did it perfectly, was obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross, God also hath highly exalted
Him and given Him a name which is above every name. A name which
is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow of things in heaven, of things
in earth, things under the earth, and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father. You know what that's teaching?
That's teaching that Jesus Christ is sovereign over this whole
universe. Sovereign over heaven, all of
that which is in heaven. You know what people are doing
who are in glory? Those saints of God that have
gone on before us. You know what the angels, the
elect angels are doing in glory? They're praising and giving Jesus
Christ all the glory and all the honor due to His name. He's
God Almighty. The object of all worship and
praise. Listen to me. He, Jesus Christ,
has made us accepted in Himself. God has made us accepted in the
Beloved. You don't accept a king. He accepts
you. And He accepted a particular
people who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world, who were purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. Heaven's
going to be inhabited with a people who recognize that Jesus Christ
paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Lay
down your weapons of warfare. Surrender yourselves over to
Christ Jesus. Bow down to Him. Give Him all
the glory, saying, Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Amen. Thank you. God bless you. Brother John.